With Thursday’s announcement, AWS Direct Connect became available from Equinix’s Frankfurt data centers. Customers can also connect to AWS via our Metro Connect service, which links Equinix data centers in Frankfurt, Munich and Dusseldorf. Or they can connect from other German data centers or from abroad, via third party carriers.

By offering AWS Direct Connect to Germany, Equinix brings the service inside a country with an emerging and receptive cloud market that hosts a massive number of domestic firms.

Germany is home to numerous brand-name, multinational enterprises in the technology, automotive, manufacturing, financial and pharmaceutical verticals. But there are also roughly 3.6 million small to medium sized domestic firms, referred to as the Mittlestand, which have significant cloud computing requirements.

“German businesses need direct connections to cloud providers such as AWS to give them the speed, agility and security they need to compete in this market,” said Donald Badoux, Managing Director, Equinix Germany.

Bringing AWS Direct Connect to Germany also gives foreign companies a direct gateway to cloud services and AWS in continental Europe. That’s a big draw, because the European cloud market is booming. According to IDC, it’s set to double over the next three years and reach $30 billion by 2017.

And being with Equinix in Germany means being a cross connect away from the nearly 1,000 other companies that are already with us, including 400 network service providers. Frankfurt also hosts Equinix Cloud Exchange, which allows customers to link simultaneously to several cloud services at once, so their cloud can change as their business needs change.

“Our goal at Equinix is to help our enterprise customers realize the full benefits of the cloud – without worrying about application latency or cost issues,” said Eric Schwartz, President, EMEA, Equinix. “Byproviding access to AWS via the Direct Connect service, we are empowering our mutual customers to achieve improved performance of cloud-based applications.”

To learn more about AWS Direct Connect’s arrival in Germany, please click here.